The Ultimate Answer to Kings: Well...yeah...

They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means "The Ultimate Argument of Kings," and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. "We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it's about: You'll do as I say or I'll send my goons to kill you."

I thought about that for a long time. If there's an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I've got bullets - he's got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that's not going to happen. So if there's an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain't bullets.

It finally came to me - and that's when I left the city, abandoned a goodly percentage of my goods, and gave all that was behind me a good, stiff Randian Shrug.

The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Well...yeah...

Yes to about 50% of it. Never caught the Glock bug, and if I did I probably wouldn't own a 30 round mag for one. That's just silly. I haven't bought a gun magazine since I figured out (duh) why all the T&E articles are so glowingly positive even when I happen to know the gun sucks, and I have no girlfriend or significant other so those don't apply. Other than that...

But I'm not a gun nut. Ian is a gun nut. Since we became friends I had to stop calling myself that because, y'know, truth in advertising. "You not only know how many Mosin-Nagant variants there are, you care." "You don't take European vacations, you go on hajj to John Browning's office in the FN factory." "Even your shooter friends ask you to shut the hell up about guns." THAT'S a gun nut.

H/T to Borepatch.